Dead Man Watching
by LanieSullivan
Summary: AU filler for "Bad TIming" to respond to the challenge by Whitefeather1965 Have a character say, "Oh, great! How am I/are we going to explain this?" in conjunction with a story prompt given to me by JMBff8. One-shot.


Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

Author's Note: This little fic is a compilation of a story idea given to me by JMBff8 to write an AU "Bad Timing" story with Lee confessing his feelings for Amanda and a challenge issued by Whitefether1965 to have a character say, "Oh, great! How am I/are we going to explain this?" I was just fortunate to be able to combine the two into one story.

 **Dead Man Watching**

"Oh, great! How are we going to explain this one," Lee muttered as he sat on one the beds in the agency infirmary, Amanda holding his hand. While he continued to be poked and prodded by McJohn's med team to make sure that the antidote had indeed neutralized the PD-2 in his system. "Me and my big mouth." He glanced nervously at Francine who was grinning at him from her perch by the next bed over where other members of the med team were tending to Billy's gunshot wound. As yet another medic approached him with yet another needle, he closed his eyes in preparation for the sting he knew was coming. That didn't compare to the sting in his heart in those moments in the aqueduct that he'd thought would be his last.

 _"Amanda, pick up...Billy...in the aqueduct," he panted, out of breath as he sank down against the stone wall. "You gotta' pick up Billy in the aqueduct. I'm outta' time." As he waited for the last few seconds on the dead man's watch to count down and his life to be over, he felt tears sting his eyes at the thought of how close he'd come to finally finding true happiness and the wedding that was only six days away. Maybe it was better this way. It wasn't as if he and Amanda were going to be able to live a normal life as a normal husband and wife, not with agreeing to keep their marriage a secret._

 _He knew that he couldn't just let it end like that, not without telling her how sorry he was that he never got to be her husband the way he wanted to be so badly. "Amanda," he began with her name again, beyond caring who was listening. "God, Amanda, I love you so much. I have loved you for so long and I'm sorry that I was so stupid in taking forever to tell you. I should have told you years ago; then maybe we could have had some kind of real life together." The guilt was weighing on him way too much. He'd always heard it said that when you were about to die, your entire life flashed before your eyes and he one-hundred percent believed that now. He was looking back on a life full of regrets._

 _"'Manda, I'm sorry..." he choked out."I promised to marry you. I_ _ **wanted**_ _to marry you and now...now...now we'll never get there. And it's my fault. If only I'd let you give me a ride home that night instead of being a stubborn jackass."_

 _"Come on, you stubborn jackass, gotta' get the watch off you," Amanda rasped, out of breath herself now from running as fast as her legs would carry her to get to him on time. When it looked as if he were going to argue with her, she shook her head. "They've got the antidote." She reached for his arm and quickly freed him. "And I love you, too."_

 _They both watched as the dying dead man's watch spewed out its poison and held tightly to each other, both breathing heavily at their closest of close calls. When he weakly smiled at her, with a surprised look on his face, she teased, "What? You didn't think I was gonna' let you back out of our wedding now, did you? Not when it's less than a week away...only six days now. You made a promise to me and I'm gonna' hold you to that promise."_

 _They were reluctant to leave one another's arms after the scare they'd had, but they knew the clock was still ticking, less than thirty minutes remained until Lee would be contagious and the antidote had to be administered before then. The two of them working in tandem got Billy to his feet and helped him to hobble back through the tunnel and out into the street toward the van._

 _McJohn soon entered behind them with a syringe and with Amanda holding his hand, Lee bared his arm. This was one time he wouldn't mind the needle if it meant that he'd live to see his wedding day with the woman he loved. "Hold me," he whispered as he pulled her close and rocked her gently against him, not wanting to ever let her go again._

 _He caught Francine's eye for just a moment, who looked up from the attention she'd been paying Billy and smiled at the pair of them with a questioning eyebrow raised almost to her hairline. He gave her a stern look as if challenging her to say something and was relieved when she didn't, but knowing Francine as he did, he knew she wouldn't keep her silence for long._

Back in the present, Lee opened his eyes when he heard Amanda's raspy voice saying, "I don't know, Sweetheart." He shot her an inquiring look at the use of the endearment. "Oh, come on, it's out there already. You made sure of that.'

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," he acknowledged. "But what do we do now? How do we explain it?"

She moved closer to him and cast a glance to Billy, who despite the pain he was in, was grinning like the Cheshire Cat at the two of them, then to Francine who still had the questioning look on her face. She nodded toward the other two. "Maybe we don't explain at all. Maybe we just move on, get married, buy a house with a front porch swing and two cats, and live happily ever after."

He chuckled at her words, reminding him of how exuberant he'd been when they had first begun talking about plans for their future life together. "Horses for the kids and softball games in the backyard?" he added. "Like a couple of normal people? You think we can handle it?"

"Mm-hmm. It'll just take practice," she confirmed.

"Well..." He snaked an arm around her waist. "I'm a firm believer in practice making perfect."

"Me too."

"Humph," Francine snorted. "The day you two become normal is the day I'll learn to cook a gourmet meal," she jested good-naturedly.

Lee reached for the pillow on the bed he sat on and lobbed it at her. "Hey! It could happen!"

"Well, come on, Lee," the blonde retorted. "How normal can you be when you didn't even buy your sweetie a ring?" She gestured toward Amanda's bare left hand.

"Who says I didn't?" He nodded to Amanda, who as he expected reached into the turtleneck she wore and extracted a long, fine gold chain bearing the ring in question.

"So, six days away, huh?" Billy questioned. _It's about damn time!_ He cheered inwardly.

"Friday," Lee and Amanda answered in unison as Lee slipped her engagement ring back on her finer where it belonged and the pair clasped hands.

Francine rolled her eyes. "Just promise me that you're not going to become one of those cutesy couples who start finishing each other's sentences. I'd hate for us to bring you back from the edge of death, just to have to kill you."

Lee pulled Amanda into his lap as he reflected on the conversation they'd just had and beamed at his fiance' thinking of how much they already were one of "those" couples. "Can't have that," he commented. "I'm finally ready to live."


End file.
